by Michael Eckenfels, 28 January 2026
If you have ever stared at the imposing cardboard cliffs of Crowbar!: The Rangers at Pointe du Hoc, you know exactly what kind of game designer Hermann Luttmann is. He is a master of that specific brand of push-your-luck tension that makes you sweat over every single die roll, capturing the chaos of the D-Day landings with a system that is as much about managing psychological momentum as it is about moving counters.
The base game is a visceral, vertical experience, focusing on the sheer audacity of the Ranger assault on the morning of June 6, 1944. But once you have successfully scaled those heights and spiked the guns a dozen times, you might find yourself looking past the bunkers toward the interior of Normandy, wondering what happened once the raid ended and the grinding reality of holding the perimeter began. That is exactly where the Vorwärts! expansion picks up the narrative, transforming a great tactical puzzle into a sweeping historical campaign.
click images to enlarge
The Vorwärts! expansion adds more depth to the base Crowbar! game, with six new scenarios. Crowbar! does have a solo mode, 2- and 3-player cooperative modes and ‘versus’ modes, but the game (for me, anyway) is truly a solo-friendly game…from the American perspective. Vorwärts!, on the other hand, lets you play as the German side solo. The six scenarios are broken up into two German scenarios (‘The Wehrmacht Strikes Back’ and ‘The Night Assaults’) and four shorter scenarios for Crowbar! (one each for Dog, Easy, and Fox Companies, and one for a Cliff Start).
Components
The Vorwärts! expansion comes with a box, though I think its components can fit in the base game box (not with the Vorwärts! box itself though, unfortunately – it is the same size lengthwise and wide, so that won’t work). Inside said box is a 16-page book, which has about 3 pages of rule additions – not a lot (one of those pages is a Summary of Rules Changes, helpfully); the rest of it is scenario information. There is also a double-sided handout with that very summary of rules changes, in slightly larger print.
There is also one counter sheet with 63 new counters, including German counters. Interestingly, the German counters representing your units you use, utilize a step strength process like Crowbar! does; however, German units that are depleted lose 2 points of strength rather than 1. There are also Rally Point markers for the Germans, foxholes for the Americans, and additional Event counters to add to the mix. These counters are the same great quality as in the Crowbar! box, being thick, 1” wide, and easy to handle and read. The artwork remains clear and thematic, which is vital when you are three hours into a session and trying to distinguish unit statuses.
The only complaint I have is somewhat minor – the rules book has artwork along the top and bottom of the pages that is too dark to easily read some of the text. This isn’t always an issue, though it is a matter of taste. I’d rather not have to put a page up to my face to see what a sentence says. Again, though, that’s just a minor nitpick; the transparency on those images should be about 40-50%, I think (or so the designer in me says, ha).
Impressions
While many expansions feel like light-duty additions intended to pad out a second printing, Vorwärts! feels like Luttmann taking the original engine and overboring the cylinders to see how much more stress the mechanics can handle. The name itself, German for “Forward!”, is of course a bit of a hopeful nod (from the German side) to the fact that this gives you the opportunity to see the battle from the other side of the hedgerows. IIf the base game is about a frantic vertical ascent, this expansion turns the experience into a desperate horizontal struggle for survival and expansion.
In the base game, the Wehrmacht often felt like a series of static obstacles that are deadly, certainly, but largely reactive. In Vorwärts!, they become your maneuver force, capable of launching their own organized counterattacks that will test the limits of the Ranger’s perimeter.
The German scenarios have their own set-up and some additional rules, but the heart of the game is much the same – instead of pushing Germans back, you’re pushing American Rangers back. The first scenario, ‘The Wehrmacht Strikes Back,’ occurs on the afternoon of June 6, while the other one (‘The Night Assaults’) takes place during…you guessed it, the evening of June 6. In these, the tables are turned, and you take command of the German ad-hoc forces, including the Grenadiers of F.R. 726 and G.R. 914, as they attempt to drive the Americans back into the English Channel.
The four other scenarios are meant to be shorter playtime scenarios where you’re only controlling one Company instead of all three, or the Cliff Start scenario where you’re starting from the cliffs and avoid having to go through the landing process, getting to the ‘meat’ of the actual battle itself. These four scenarios ensure your Crowbar! base game can get some more play time just from not having to take quite as long to set up, play, and put away.
In offering those four shorter scenarios, Luttmann breaks down the battle into specific, manageable chunks, allowing you to explore different facets of the engagement. These smaller scenarios are perfect for those evenings when you want the Crowbar! experience but don’t have the four hours required for the full assault.
Playing as the Germans in these scenarios is a fascinating exercise in fragility and desperation. Unlike the Rangers, who are elite, highly motivated, and (initially) backed by naval gunfire, the German forces in these scenarios are often under-equipped and lacking heavy weapon support. You are essentially, as the German side, trying to plug holes in a crumbling line with whatever units you can scrape together. This shift in perspective adds an incredible amount of historical insight to the game. You begin to realize that the Rangers weren’t just fighting the terrain; they were fighting a ticking clock against a German military that was trying to organize a desperate, coherent response before the beachhead could be consolidated. The Night Assaults scenario, in particular, captures the terrifying and confused nature of small-unit combat in the dark, where lines of sight are limited and the hallmark Luttman ‘push-your-luck’ movement system feels even more claustrophobic and risky.
One of the most impressive things about Vorwärts! is how it manages to add this depth without bogging the game down in extra chrome or unnecessary rules bloat. That 12-page booklet that integrates the new rules seamlessly into the existing framework is mostly dedicated to set-up and scenario-specific details, meaning the actual rules changes are surprisingly light and easy to digest. One will spend more time thinking about tactical positioning than flipping through the manual. The new player aid is also excellently designed, providing a clear summary of the changes and how to adapt the event system for the German-side scenarios. It allows one to focus on the narrative unfolding on the map rather than the mechanics driving it.
Speaking of the map, the expansion reinforces the idea that space is the ultimate enemy in Crowbar!. In the base game, your focus is entirely on getting from the start spaces to the row of clifftop spaces; Vorwärts! expands the scope of what happens once you are there. By introducing foxholes and defensive positions for the Rangers, the game turns into a tower defense of sorts, where you are the one assaulting said towers. The hedgerows and tighter terrain inland mean that line of sight becomes a constant headache, making the “Check” system for movement and firing even more high-stakes. A failed roll when you’re caught in a crossfire in the Normandy interior is more punishing than a stall on the cliffside, as there is often nowhere to retreat to.
For the solo player, which is the primary audience for the Crowbar! system, I think this expansion is an absolute must-have. It offers a variety of fresh scenarios and therefore, playstyles that keep the system from feeling repetitive. The ability to play as the Germans provides a unique ‘other side of the fence’ view of the game’s events, which ironically may make you a better Ranger commander in the future. You start to see the weaknesses in the German lines and understand the pressure they were under to react quickly. It turns the game from a tactical puzzle into a two-sided historical study, all while maintaining the fast fun that Luttmann’s designs are known for.
In conclusion, Vorwärts! is exactly how one should expand a solitaire wargame. It respects the core loop of the original while broadening its horizons in every direction. It is gritty, it is punishing, and it perfectly captures the transition from the heroic assault on the heights initially to the muddy, bloody reality of the day and night that followed. If you own Crowbar!, you really should own Vorwärts!. It doesn’t just add more pieces to the board, it adds more ‘soul’ to the story of this event and its impact on the larger picture of the Normandy landings. It reminds us that for the Rangers at Pointe du Hoc, reaching the top of the cliff was only the beginning of the battle. Whether you are leading the charge as the Rangers or desperately trying to hold the line as the Wehrmacht, this expansion ensures that the tension never lets up until the final die is cast. For heaven’s sake, don’t stop moving. Forward, always forward.
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